The real problem with over pitching comes usually from pitching slurry that has large amounts of dead cells and/or trub, which can cause problems in the finished beer (as in pitching directly on a yeast cake). Of course, over pithcing can also change the character of the beer as well, especially on the styles mentioned by Tom.

You certainly could overpitch and that might cause less than optimal flavors. But on a homebrew scale I don't think it's something to worry about. I think we struggle, even with starters, to pitch enough yeast usually. At least, I think I do. Hard to really know without going the science geek route and counting cells.

If you pitch directly on an entire yeast cake that's a different story of course. I never do that unless I'm making a truly monstrous beer.

You certainly could overpitch and that might cause less than optimal flavors. But on a homebrew scale I don't think it's something to worry about. I think we struggle, even with starters, to pitch enough yeast usually. At least, I think I do. Hard to really know without going the science geek route and counting cells.

If you pitch directly on an entire yeast cake that's a different story of course. I never do that unless I'm making a truly monstrous beer.

Burial Chair Wee Heavy sounds like one of those monstrous beers. Great name.

contrary to popular opinion- and perhaps scientific "fact"- I believe in pitching directly onto yeast cakes. In my experience this "overpitching" produces great beers. I step up the OG of each successive batch. Meaning the first batch would be, for example, a mild at OG 1035-1040, followed by a brown porter OG 1040-1050, then maybe a robust porter or barleywine. My thinking has been that I would rather not bother with harvesting the yeast, but brew on the day I am ready to rack or bottle the previous batch. I do also save yeast if I don't have the time to brew, but pitching directly on yeast cakes is a procedure I will continue to do and hope to continue making award-winning beers as a result. Not to brag, but more as a point of justification, I recently won my first ever medal (silver) at Nationals with a brown porter pitched onto a fresh yeast cake!

From my experience, pitching on a yeast cake = more yeast = faster ferment = more heat. If you have good fermentation temp control, I think it's less of a problem to pitch on a yeast cake. I've gotten some fusel/hot alcohol flavor from the times I've pitched onto a whole yeast cake, but I think that's more to do with my cooling and less to do with the pitching rate, per se.

contrary to popular opinion- and perhaps scientific "fact"- I believe in pitching directly onto yeast cakes. In my experience this "overpitching" produces great beers. I step up the OG of each successive batch. Meaning the first batch would be, for example, a mild at OG 1035-1040, followed by a brown porter OG 1040-1050, then maybe a robust porter or barleywine. My thinking has been that I would rather not bother with harvesting the yeast, but brew on the day I am ready to rack or bottle the previous batch. I do also save yeast if I don't have the time to brew, but pitching directly on yeast cakes is a procedure I will continue to do and hope to continue making award-winning beers as a result. Not to brag, but more as a point of justification, I recently won my first ever medal (silver) at Nationals with a brown porter pitched onto a fresh yeast cake!

As long as you are going from a lower gravity beer to a higher gravity beer you can usually get away with it, and as long as you are not carrying dead cells over for more than 2 or 3 generations at most. And, perhaps, had you pitched a more "proper" slurry of yeast you may have gotten gold.

From my experiences over pitching can definitely lead to problems in the finished beer. You can certainly get away with it from batch to batch but I really believe you will have more consistent results if you aim for a "proper" pitch every time.

The real problem with over pitching comes usually from pitching slurry that has large amounts of dead cells and/or trub, which can cause problems in the finished beer (as in pitching directly on a yeast cake). Of course, over pithcing can also change the character of the beer as well, especially on the styles mentioned by Tom.

How long would you think the off-flavors take to be absorbed into the beer?I pitched my 1.090 doppelbock on a yeast cake of a 1.056 Dortmund Export, let it settle for 5-6 hours, and then transferred it off the trub into another fermenter. I would assume that the dead yeast would settle out. Any thoughts on that tactic?

Tom, I don't really know how long it would take for the autolysis to "seep" into the beer. My guess a few days. that said, I hope you have better luck with that technique than myself when I tried it. the effect was like removing half of the yeast. The fermentation slowed to a crawl and never did finish and I ended up dumping the batch. That said, it was a lager, so maybe the fault was that most of teh yeast were still on the bottom.